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George Brassens was France's finest post-war singer/songwriter, a uniquely and unquantifiably Parisian phenomenon. Armed with an acoustic guitar (at most, late in his career, a string trio) and a deceptively simple baritone voice, he set people whistling in the street lovesongs (risqué and otherwise) of affable idiosyncracy and settings of poets from Villon to Aragon. Why is he unknown outside France? He spent a lifetime avoiding stardom, but also his brilliant lyrics are totally untranslatable, and though his best melodies ...
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George Brassens was France's finest post-war singer/songwriter, a uniquely and unquantifiably Parisian phenomenon. Armed with an acoustic guitar (at most, late in his career, a string trio) and a deceptively simple baritone voice, he set people whistling in the street lovesongs (risqué and otherwise) of affable idiosyncracy and settings of poets from Villon to Aragon. Why is he unknown outside France? He spent a lifetime avoiding stardom, but also his brilliant lyrics are totally untranslatable, and though his best melodies are unforgettably beguiling and his voice guitar unequalled models of how to support a lyric, those lyrics are crucial. Some of his very finest songs (including the Villon and Aragon settings) are missing here, and some included are below his best. But second-best Brassens still towers over Jacques Who? and all his ilk. ~ John Storm Roberts, Original Music, Rovi
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